Kaiko report: Open interest and funding rates for Robinhood tokens spiked abnormally before the token listing on Robinhood

According to a report by Cointelegraph on May 6, market data provider Kaiko released a report on Monday stating that before Robinhood announced multiple token listings, the open interest, funding rates, and on-chain trading patterns in the perpetual futures market showed unusual activity. In the report, Kaiko research analyst Laurens Fraussen asked whether the above phenomena reflect that some traders had pre-positioned their orders before the announcement was published.

The most典型 case: pre-positioning records from address 0xa1E

(Source: Kaiko)

According to Kaiko’s report, the most representative case involves the wallet address “0xa1E”. Kaiko said that on January 15, 2026 at 11:05 UTC, the address opened a long position for the Lighter (LIT) token on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, about one hour before Robinhood announced the LIT listing at 12:12 UTC that afternoon; the address then closed the position at around 1:00 PM, approximately 50 minutes after the announcement was released.

According to Kaiko’s report, the same address later opened a short position in a perpetual contract tied to HOOD on April 28. A few hours later, Robinhood’s first-quarter revenue came in below analysts’ expectations; after the HOOD share price fell that day, the address completed the short position close.

Abnormal data before multiple token listings

(Source: Kaiko)

According to Kaiko’s report, before Robinhood announced the listings, multiple tokens showed spikes in open interest and funding rates, including Zcash (ZEC), Synthetix (SNX), and Near Protocol (NEAR). All three tokens experienced price drift before the announcement, and recorded average abnormal returns within a few hours before and after the listing announcement.

According to Kaiko’s report, Fraussen noted that multiple other wallets also carried out similar pre-positioning operations before the listings, and in the report asked: “Did multiple participants obtain the same information before the announcement was published?”

Kaiko analyst’s two interpretations

According to Cointelegraph’s report, Fraussen told Cointelegraph that derivatives indicators show this pre-positioning pattern is statistically consistent and has repeatedly appeared across multiple asset listing events. He said the above phenomena may reflect: “privileged access to Robinhood’s listing pipeline,” or “an extremely reliable front-running strategy built on public signals.”

Fraussen also added that some sophisticated traders may be pre-positioning based on publicly visible market signals—such as spikes in funding rates, increased trading volume, and surges in open interest—rather than relying on non-public information.

Common Questions

When was Kaiko’s report released? What types of trading data does it cover?

According to Cointelegraph’s May 6, 2026 report, Kaiko’s report was released on Monday of this week, and Fraussen provided Cointelegraph with related analysis. The report covers open interest, funding rates, and on-chain trading patterns in the perpetual futures market.

In which two events did address 0xa1E show abnormal pre-positioning?

According to Kaiko’s report, address 0xa1E appeared in two events: first, opening a long position on Hyperliquid about one hour before Robinhood announced the LIT listing; second, opening a short position in a HOOD-perpetual contract a few hours before Robinhood released its first-quarter earnings report that came in below expectations.

How did Kaiko interpret the abnormal pre-positioning?

According to Cointelegraph’s report, Fraussen said the related phenomena may represent “privileged access” to Robinhood’s listing pipeline, or a reliable front-running approach built on public signals. He also noted that sophisticated traders may pre-position based on publicly visible market signals such as funding rates.